della Faggiola

The della Faggiola were a minor noble family of the Massa Trabaria, the Apennine border country between Romagna, Tuscany and the Marche, where they held the castle of Casteldelci near Rimini. Their most famous member was Uguccione della Faggiola, born around 1250, a Ghibelline soldier who served as podestà of Arezzo and imperial vicar in Genoa for Henry VII before being called to Pisa in 1313.

He made himself lord of Pisa, sacked Lucca in 1314 with his protégé Castruccio Castracani, and in 1315 crushed the Florentine Guelphs and their Angevin allies at Montecatini.

Driven out of Pisa and Lucca by revolts in 1316, he took service with Cangrande della Scala and died of malaria in 1319 during the siege of Padua, leaving his kin to continue as local feudatories in the Rimini Apennines.